Story gallery: Peninsula Airport Commission's People Express loan

In 2014 the Peninsula Airport Commission quietly voted to use taxpayer funds to guarantee a $5 million line of credit for the longshot startup People Express Airlines. The airline launched in June 2014, but went out of business within three months, after drawing $4.5 million on the line of credit, which the airport had to repay. The airport's use of public funds led to the resignation of Newport News City Manager Jim Bourey and the firing of airport executive director Ken Spirito. A criminal investigation has been started and airport employees have been interviewed by the IRS, the Virginia State Police and U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of the Inspector General.

The state’s top transportation official had tough words Wednesday about the Peninsula Airport Commission’s bailout of People Express Airlines but proposed a way forward that wasn’t as harsh as state auditors suggested. The state will not continue its freeze on all funds to the airport but won’t...

TowneBank, which received the taxpayer-funded repayment of a People Express Airlines loan, lends more money to its directors and executives than virtually any other bank in the United States. Some of those bank officials played key roles in the financial deal that eventually led the Peninsula Airport...

The $4.5 million loan to People Express airline that was paid off by taxpayers was not used for landing fees and terminal services at other airports as former Newport News airport Executive Director Ken Spirito has said. Spirito told the Daily Press earlier this year that some $3 million of the...

NEWPORT NEWS — The Virginia State Police and two federal agencies are jointly working an investigation into the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport — but none of the three agencies has so far been designated to lead the case, a spokeswoman said this week. "We're all working on different...

Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne says Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport officials must understand they are still cut off from state funds and need to meet with him in an open session to discuss guidelines for restarting that cash flow. On Thursday, the Peninsula Airport Commission...

The Virginia State Police have launched "an investigation into past business practices" at the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport, a spokeswoman for the agency has confirmed. The State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation for the Hampton Roads region "did conduct ... a series of...

Agents with the Virginia State Police and two federal agencies spent several hours at Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport on Tuesday interviewing employees about "matters of the airport," the airport's current chief said. Sandy Wanner, the airport's acting executive director, said three...

The Peninsula Airport Commission is looking for new banks to do business with. The commission now deals only with TowneBank, which is the bank that received $4.5 million of public monies from the commission because of its guarantee of TowneBank's loan to the short-lived People Express Airlines....

As the state and Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport try to figure out how to recoup $4.5 million of public funds used to pay off People Express Airlines' debt to TowneBank, a big question remains unanswered: Where did the money go? The 300-plus-page Virginia Department of Transportation...